Delicious Decorations

Chocolate Flowers

Decorate your cakes and treats with chocolate embellishments that taste as amazing as they look. Create beautiful chocolate flowers and trendy cake textures with simple tools.

Make nine varieties of scrumptious, striking chocolate flowers with cake artist Erin Gardner. Temper chocolate with ease for smooth, glossy results. Make flowers without tools: peonies layered with gorgeous color, perfect pansies with realistic details, and more. Work with egg molds to create a simply beautiful tulip, a ruffled parrot tulip and a lovely ranunculus. Use veiners and molds to create textured anemones, dainty stephanotises and a variety of leaves. Bring radiant sunflowers and sweet butterflies to life with surprisingly simple techniques. Plus, create woodgrain or birch textures that offer a rustic cake surface for chocolate flower arrangements. Learn how to make chocolate flowers: Decorate your most impressive, irresistible cakes and treats with these luscious embellishments.

Lesson plan

14:38

Lesson 1. Preparing the Chocolate

Meet your instructor, award-winning pastry chef and cake designer Erin Gardner, as she introduces you to the beautiful, delicious flowers you can make using chocolate! Discover what types of chocolate work best, from dark to white, and learn Erinís easy method for tempering to ensure shiny flowers that hold their shape. Then, see how to color white chocolate or candy discs to get the exact color you want.

14:14

Lesson 2. No Tools Needed: Peony, Simple Blossom & Pansy

Make your first chocolate flower, a delicate and delectable peony, as Erin demonstrates how to make this stunner with absolutely no tools! Learn techniques for creating variegated petals of various sizes and assemble them into beautiful blooms. Then, turn your attention to dainty blossoms and pansies as you learn to make four- or five-petal flowers with hand-painted details.

9:48

Lesson 3. Flowers Made With Molds: Tulips & Ranunculus

Make gorgeous tulips using a simple egg mold and learn Erinís secret to creating exquisite ruffled French tulips using the same techniques. Then, make a ranunculus as small or as full as you wish as you learn how to create a center and attach molded petals to it.

13:47

Lesson 4. Using Veiners: Making Anemone, Leaves & Stephanotis

Mimic the delicate and textured look of gum paste flowers with veining techniques and wired petals. First, use a simple flower veiner to create petals for a charming anemone with hand-painted details. Then, Erin demonstrates how to use two types of molds to make leaves, including wired ivy. Finally, learn to create a wired stephanotis as Erin walks you through the process of forming the blossoms and then wiring them to add stability and dimension.

16:20

Lesson 5. Combining Methods: Sunflower & Butterflies

Discover the pastoral scenes you can create as you learn to make multipetal, two-tone sunflowers complete with rich, textured centers. Then, using the template provided in your class materials, learn to create a flight of butterflies using a variety of techniques.

16:32

Lesson 6. Creating a Cupcake Garden

Expand your garden as Erin shows you how to transform the eight flowers demonstrated in the class to create new varieties using the techniques you already know! Then, create a field full of cupcakes topped with delicious chocolate as you assemble all of your chocolate flowers using just buttercream! Finally, see how to turn one of your cupcakes into a magnificent peony mini-cake, the perfect sweet for the guest of honor.

27:32

Lesson 7. Royal Icing Tree Bark

Create a two types of woodland environments to showcase your amazing chocolate flowers. First, discover how to turn a fondant-covered cake into a rustic tree stump as Erin shows you how to add tree rings, carvings and even textured royal icing bark, all hand painted to bring out the realistic texture. Then, discover Erinís easy method for adding a golden birch texture to the side of a cake and gather tips for arranging your flowers as she creates a beautiful cascade of chocolate delights.

"I love this class! I love the idea of using chocolate for butterflies and flowers. The instructor is really good at teaching simple ways to make very artistic butterflies and I absolutely love both tree bark techniques! They look so real and it's very easy to do." - Shawnaphillips549

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Lesson plan

14:38

Lesson 1. Preparing the Chocolate

Meet your instructor, award-winning pastry chef and cake designer Erin Gardner, as she introduces you to the beautiful, delicious flowers you can make using chocolate! Discover what types of chocolate work best, from dark to white, and learn Erinís easy method for tempering to ensure shiny flowers that hold their shape. Then, see how to color white chocolate or candy discs to get the exact color you want.

14:14

Lesson 2. No Tools Needed: Peony, Simple Blossom & Pansy

Make your first chocolate flower, a delicate and delectable peony, as Erin demonstrates how to make this stunner with absolutely no tools! Learn techniques for creating variegated petals of various sizes and assemble them into beautiful blooms. Then, turn your attention to dainty blossoms and pansies as you learn to make four- or five-petal flowers with hand-painted details.

9:48

Lesson 3. Flowers Made With Molds: Tulips & Ranunculus

Make gorgeous tulips using a simple egg mold and learn Erinís secret to creating exquisite ruffled French tulips using the same techniques. Then, make a ranunculus as small or as full as you wish as you learn how to create a center and attach molded petals to it.

13:47

Lesson 4. Using Veiners: Making Anemone, Leaves & Stephanotis

Mimic the delicate and textured look of gum paste flowers with veining techniques and wired petals. First, use a simple flower veiner to create petals for a charming anemone with hand-painted details. Then, Erin demonstrates how to use two types of molds to make leaves, including wired ivy. Finally, learn to create a wired stephanotis as Erin walks you through the process of forming the blossoms and then wiring them to add stability and dimension.

16:20

Lesson 5. Combining Methods: Sunflower & Butterflies

Discover the pastoral scenes you can create as you learn to make multipetal, two-tone sunflowers complete with rich, textured centers. Then, using the template provided in your class materials, learn to create a flight of butterflies using a variety of techniques.

16:32

Lesson 6. Creating a Cupcake Garden

Expand your garden as Erin shows you how to transform the eight flowers demonstrated in the class to create new varieties using the techniques you already know! Then, create a field full of cupcakes topped with delicious chocolate as you assemble all of your chocolate flowers using just buttercream! Finally, see how to turn one of your cupcakes into a magnificent peony mini-cake, the perfect sweet for the guest of honor.

27:32

Lesson 7. Royal Icing Tree Bark

Create a two types of woodland environments to showcase your amazing chocolate flowers. First, discover how to turn a fondant-covered cake into a rustic tree stump as Erin shows you how to add tree rings, carvings and even textured royal icing bark, all hand painted to bring out the realistic texture. Then, discover Erinís easy method for adding a golden birch texture to the side of a cake and gather tips for arranging your flowers as she creates a beautiful cascade of chocolate delights.

The instructor

Erin Gardner, Instructor of Delicious Decorations

After developing her cake skills as a pastry chef in numerous New England kitchens, Erin's cake decorating adventure led her to New York City for a sugar-flower class with Ron Ben-Israel. Erin would eventually meet up with Ron again, this time on an episode of his Food Network show, Sweet Genius, which she won. Today, Erin's shop, Wild Orchid Baking Company, has been named by both Brides Magazine and Martha Stewart Weddings as one of the best in the country. Brides also included a cake of Erin's as one of America's Prettiest Wedding Cakes. Her first book, Great Cake Decorating, was released in 2014.

Ratings & reviews

Class rating

(23 reviews)

Awesome

by mariejo43 on March 2, 2015

I try so many times and no good results. I'm sure now it will be done. I'll post my flowers. Thanks.

I try so many times and no good results. I'm sure now it will be done. I'll post my flowers. Thanks.

Chocolate Flowers

by fearless-baker@flash.net on February 24, 2015

Great. Anyone should be able to do this.The instructor works slowly and that helps.

Great. Anyone should be able to do this.The instructor works slowly and that helps.

Great Class

by nancyw89 on February 19, 2015

I really enjoyed this! I have always loved baking, and this class has got me a lot more interested in decorating as well! Over the last few months I have dabbled with making my cakes prettier, but I think this class will take me to the next level!

I really enjoyed this! I have always loved baking, and this class has got me a lot more interested in decorating as well! Over the last few months I have dabbled with making my cakes prettier, but I think this class will take me to the next level!

Not at all! Erin makes most of her flowers without any tools or just a simple egg former. She does demonstrate a few flowers that use either a simple mold or veiner. But most of these beautiful chocolate flowers will be formed by hand.